<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>'Oklahoma!' Hits Turbulence in Atlantic Crossing<P>Charles Isherwood, Variety<P>NEW YORK (Variety) - It appears that in this topsy-turvy Broadway season -- surprisingly high in quantity and depressingly low in quality -- even the sure things aren't so sure anymore.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020322/review_nm/review_stage_oklahoma_dc_1 target=_blank>More</a>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Quaint 'Oklahoma!' Revival Arrives<P>MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP<P>NEW YORK (AP) - Have they knocked the OK out of "Oklahoma!"?<P>Trailing clouds of extravagant praise, England's National Theatre revival of the landmark Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical has arrived on Broadway, mostly recast but with its director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Susan Stroman still in charge. And the results are puzzling.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020322/ap_on_en_ot/theater_oklahoma_1 target=_blank>More</a>

<P><BR><B>Brit revival of Oklahoma! wows Broadway </B><P> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The National Theatre production of the classic American musical Oklahoma! has won rave reviews from the US critics today after a triumphant first night on Broadway. <BR>The show, directed by the National Theatre's outgoing artistic director, Trevor Nunn, and produced by impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh, was hailed as a "beautiful revival of a pure prairie classic" by the New York Daily News. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,672522,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P>

It's hard to beat this wonderful 'old' musicals....<P>From the Philadelphia Inquirer:<P><B>Earthy new 'Oklahoma!' kicks up its feet on Broadway</B><BR>By Desmond Ryan<BR>Inquirer Theater Critic<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>NEW YORK - Everything's up to date in Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma!, an exuberant and grittily realistic production that gives a cherished icon a welcome erotic charge and serves up some low-down with the hoedown.<BR>Nunn's treatment of the first collaboration of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 2d is a lucid and contemporary reappraisal rather than a piece of radical revisionism. The show that exults, "We know we belong to the land," is itself earthy in two senses.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/performing_arts/2936753.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><BR>

<B>There’s a Dark, Rainy Cloud on the Meadow</B><BR>by John Heilpern in The NY Observer<P><BR>Concerning the fuss about Trevor Nunn’s dark psychological version of Oklahoma! may we, firstly, all keep calm and remind ourselves that Rodgers and Hammerstein’s lovely, eternally bright golden haze of a musical ain’t Oedipus?<P>If it were, it would have an exclamation point. (Oedipus!) To be sure, the fabled Oklahoma! has a serious undertow, though whether it really amounts to much more than showbiz melodrama is open to question. The masterful sentimentalist Oscar Hammerstein II knew that not everything in a rattling good yarn can be "cute and clean and purty and bright," as Will and Ado Annie’s "All Er Nuthin’" perkily goes. But I regret that, for me, Mr. Nunn’s new production, which comes to Broadway via the Royal National Theatre, takes itself all too solemnly, earnestly over-mining the subtext and presumed erotic undercurrent. <P><A HREF="http://www.observer.com/pages/theater.asp" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Patrick Wilson: Taking on the role of Curly in `Oklahoma!'<P>MATT WOLF, Associated Press on Yahoo!<P>LONDON - Patrick Wilson knows that most of the audience at Broadway's new revival of "Oklahoma!" will be humming along with him as he ambles nightly on to the Gershwin Theatre stage to sing "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020329/ap_wo_en_ge/arts_britain_patrick_wilson_5 target=_blank>More</a>

Tobi Tobias writes in NY Mag:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>These days, the choreography in Broadway musicals is the same from one show to another. I suppose that with so much money riding on these productions, the people in charge opt for safety, relying on what's worked for recent megahits.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.newyorkmag.com/page.cfm?page_id=5846 target=_blank>More</a>, about halfway down the linked article.

News of a local production:<P><B>East Rochester to stage 'Oklahoma!'</B> <BR>Jessie Dean Goodison/Messenger Post Staff (East Rochester, US) <BR> <BR> <BR>The musical will be performed the weekend of April 5-7. <BR>"Oklahoma!" is a simple country story about two young people in love, the folks in their lives and the struggles they endure as they try to find happiness. <P>Their story is set in the early 1900s, just before the Oklahoma territory became a state in 1907. <P>Curly, played by senior Brett Moulton, and Laurey, played by junior Kim Hatch, are the main characters. The play revolves around their courtship and the farmers and the ranchers in their town.<P><A HREF="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=3755857&BRD=1892&PAG=461&dept_id=121705&rfi=6" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

A High School production in Washington:<P><B>Robust 'Oklahoma!' Satisfies</B> <BR>By Xiao-bo Yuan for The Washington Post<P><BR>In today's trend-obsessed culture, it's refreshing to see a theater production that is unapologetically sentimental, without a trace of fashionable cynicism or witty social commentary. Quince Orchard High School's spirited production last weekend of the classic American musical "Oklahoma!" was just such a play -- a simple and well-acted performance that hit the right notes despite small imperfections.<P>Although the plot of "Oklahoma!" -- which focuses on the relationship between a cowboy named Curly and his love interest, the aloof Laurey -- seems mild compared with the more risqué musicals now popular on Broadway, the Quince Orchard cast brought enough enthusiasm to their farmer and cowboy roles to generate the audience's interest. As the robust young actors danced and sang their way through the play, it was easy to feel some of the excitement "Oklahoma!" must have generated in its heyday in mid-20th-century America, at a time when composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein's mix of storytelling and catchy music revolutionized musical theater.<P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2157-2002Apr17.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

<B>From baseball to ballet to ... Broadway</B><BR>By Tony Vellela | Special to The Christian Science Monitor<P><BR>NEW YORK – While growing up in Marietta, Ga., Shuler Hensley – now on Broadway playing Jud Fry in "Oklahoma!" – bounced between team sports and helping out in his mother's ballet classes. <BR>"I went from baseball to ballet ... and it didn't seem odd," says Mr. Hensley, the son of Iris and Sam Hensley, a ballet teacher and a former All-America football player.<P>"Guys are very hard to find in the regional ballet world!" Hensley laughs, recalling his first foray into performing, as 4-year-old Fritz in his hometown production of "The Nutcracker."<P>The talented actor and singer now is playing one of theater's most famous bad guys, and was recently nominated for a Tony Award. The winners will be announced June 2.<P><A HREF="http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0517/p19s02-alip.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

<B>Patty Duke: Between Broadway Roles, a Lifetime of Ups and Downs</B> By NEIL GENZLINGER New York Times 22 December 2002

HEADING into an audition, any actress, even one with almost half a century in the business, will latch onto omens. So when she came to New York to try out for "Oklahoma!" last year, Patty Duke was understandably optimistic when she saw where the audition was to be: the Duke building on 42nd Street.

"I said, `Oh, my God, this part is mine,' " Ms. Duke recalled the other day in an interview in the Midtown offices of the show's publicist. "I left there on a high."

But lots of good feelings were swept away the next day, Sept. 11, 2001, and then came those confusing weeks when New York's theater world tried to figure out whether and how to continue.

A career bookended by Broadway By Tony Vellela | Special to The Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK – Forty years ago, she was Broadway's reigning princess. Now, after an admittedly self-imposed exile, Patty Duke has returned to the New York stage in "Oklahoma!" "It was a real adrenaline rush," she giggles, recalling her first performance as Aunt Eller, on her Dec. 14 birthday. "My husband always gives me great birthdays, but this was something really special."

The role originally went to Andrea Martin, who then made plans to work in TV, on the coming sitcom based on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

Duke says, "They called and said, 'Would you be insulted if we offer you the role when Andrea leaves?' I said, 'Insult me! Insult me!'

"I was really attracted to this part because there's nothing superficial about Eller," says Duke. "She takes it as it lays, and does the best she can with what she's got. I'm drawn to her sense of survivorship, and her sense of fun."

That golden haze on the meadow is a bit brighter the second time around.

The current Broadway revival of "Oklahoma!" received a muted welcome from many of the critics when it opened at the Gershwin Theatre last March. Tasteful, a tad sedate and a little reverential, the production was intimidated perhaps by the show's standing as a landmark of the American musical theater.

The British-produced musical Oklahoma is to close on Broadway, the latest victim of plummeting theatre ticket sales. The show, which is directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, will have played in New York for less than a year when it closes later this month.

The £7m production opened to rave reviews and record advance ticket sales in March. Since then it has failed to fill even half the seats in Manhattan's Gershwin Theatre amid a general downturn in Broadway attendances. Ticket promotion brought the crowds back for a while. British actress Josephina Gabrielle starred in the show, which was produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh.

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